viii, 252 pages : 24 cm

"In this book, Joseph Graves traces the development of thought about human genetic diversity. He argues that racism has persisted in our society because adequate scientific reasoning has not entered into the equation. Graves champions the scientific method, and explains how we may properly ask questions about the nature of population differentiation and how (if at all) we may correlate that diversity to differences in human capacity and behavior. He also cautions us to think critically about scientific findings that have historically been misused in controversies over racial differences in intelligence heritability, criminal behavior disease predisposition, and other traits. Greek philosophy, social Darwinism, New World colonialism, the eugenics movement, intelligence testing biases, and racial health fallacies are just a few of the topics he addresses." "According to Graves, this country cannot truly address its racial problems until people understand that separate human races do not exist empirically. With the biological basis for race removed, racism becomes an ideology, one that can and must be expunged."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction: Racial thinking : complaints and disorders -- pt. 1. The origin of the race concept -- The earliest theories : race before the age of discovery -- Colonialism, slavery, and race in the New World -- Pre-Darwinian theories of biology and race -- pt. 2. Darwin and the survival of scientific racism -- Darwinism revolutionizes anthropology -- Race and social Darwinism -- Pseudoscience and the founding of eugenics -- pt. 3. Applications and misapplications of Darwinism -- Mendelism, the neo-Darwinian synthesis, and the growth of eugenics -- Eugenics, race, and fascism : the road to Auschwitz went through Cold Spring Harbor -- The retreat and postwar revival of scientific racism -- pt. 4. Biological theories of race at the millennium -- The race and IQ fallacy -- The race and disease fallacy -- Conclusion: What can or will we do without race? -- Appendices

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